Strutting Peacock
My friends all know that if I had a spirit animal, it would be a peacock, although I am not male and not particularly birdlike.
However, I love the plumage – peacock feathers make me smile every time I see them.
In April 2016, I went out west for a work trip, and tacked on a couple of extra days to spend with friends in Arizona. Of course, I saved my pennies before I went, because souvenir yarn is most definitely a thing. I don’t have room in my home for random tchotchkes and truth be told, I kind of find made-in-China-but-stamped-with-a-local-name things to be just a wee bit tacky.
But yarn? Yarn that can be made into a one-of-a-kind object of my choosing, yarn that every time I use the project made from it, I’ll feel wrapped up in memories of my trip?
Yes, please!
So one of the first questions I asked when I arrived was “So where does a person buy yarn in this city?” Apparently, the answer is Tempe Yarn and Fiber 😉
We went in the afternoon before my flight home, and knowing I had to pack my purchases into my luggage was a great incentive to stick to my budget.
That was the ONLY incentive, though, because they had a broad selection of local yarns, including Navajo Churro, and various yarns that were dyed locally even if not made locally.
My splurge of choice was an absolutely gorgeous skein of locally dyed BFL and silk, in a deep tonal between teal and peacock blue. I fell in love with it right away (I may have even hissed “My precioussssss” as I patted it) and I knew it was destined to travel home with me and become a shawl.
*Pro tip – laceweight is always a great choice when wanting to get the most knitting minutes per skein. The enjoyment per $$ spent ratio skews way in favour of enjoyment with laceweight!*
Once I was home and settled back in, I went looking for a shawl pattern. I have a couple of go-to designers that I usually knit shawls from (Boo Knits and Nim Teasdale, for the curious) but I wanted something with the peacock feathers at the bottom border of the shawl.
Ravelry to the rescue, as usual…I found the aptly named Strutting Peacock shawl by Anna Victoria. I cast on April 30th, and it’s been an enjoyable knit so far.
I’m 7 days in, although I’ve not knit every day, and I have 4 repeats of the body lace done. Right now, unblocked but stretched to mimic blocking, it appears to be about 32 x 11…meaning I’ll need to do many more repeats than the 3 suggested in the pattern.
But since I have lots of yarn; I’m not worried. I know I don’t have enough beads, but that’s part of the fun of knitting. By the time I run out, I’m sure I’ll have discovered a way to make stash beads work for the rest! 😉
In addition to the stitches listed below, this pattern has some unusual increases, decreases, and manipulated stitches that I’ve not seen elsewhere.
While I’m not yet to the border charts, so far, this pattern gets a solid 4 out of 5 from me. It doesn’t have a lot of love on Ravelry right now, so if you, too, are looking for a fun knit…check it out!
Stitches:
- SSK
- K2tog
- yo
- CDD
Materials
- Selkie Mist Laceweight
- Needles, size 6
- Miyuki 5/0 Triangles
- Whatever other beads I throw in after I run out!
